This invention relates generally to color photo print processor accessories, and more particularly to a heat and fume exhaust system as an accessory to photo print processors to provide a safer work area for the user of such processors.
Applicant, in his business, uses a well-known commercially available high-speed photo print processor manufactured and distributed by KIS Photo under their trade name "KIS Magnum Speed" and/or "KIS/30". This unit, as well as other high-speed photoprinters, are utilized by quick photo print shops throughout the United States and world wide. The KIS unit includes a tank housing and the photoprocessing mechanism housed therein in front of which the user must routinely operate in order to produce photographs. Enclosed within the tank housing, servicable from above after a hinged closure forming a portion of the copier top surface is opened, are a plurality of chemical tanks and a drying unit for finish processing photographs. The photographs are discharged from an opening into a tray on the front panel of such units. Mounted atop the tank housing is an exposure head and control by which the user regulates the accurate color and density consistencies of the photographs produced.
Because of this typical arrangement, the user is exposed to continuous heavy doses of heated air and heated chemical fumes which exhaust primarily from the opening in the front panel. These heated air and heated chemical fumes routinely cause topical skin problems, and in some instances, degradation of internal organs because of the necessity for the user to breath these fumes while operating the machine. Applicant is aware that, if not all, then the majority of users of these machines, as applicant has, ultimately experience some form of physical degradation due to repeated and continuous exposure to these fumes.
To applicant's knowledge, no accessory is available through any of the photo print processor manufacturers or otherwise to relieve this damaging physical condition as an inherent risk of such use. However, because of the lucrative nature of the franchise business utilizing such high-speed photo print processors, this condition has gone virtually unattended.
The present invention provides a system having a blower in conjunction with a molded hood and associated flexible duct or hose assembled to the front panel of the photo print processor in an arrangement whereby these heated air and exhaust gases are removed away from the front panel of the machine and the user so as to virtually eliminate this problem.